


La Goupile de Serene

by alicy_sunberg33



Category: GreedFall (Video Game)
Genre: Character Study, Female De Sardet (GreedFall), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:35:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21999835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alicy_sunberg33/pseuds/alicy_sunberg33
Summary: In Serene, a city of intrigues, merchants, sickness and resilience, rose the woman from the House of De Sardet that everyone in town ended up calling with either affection or dread, depending on who was saying it:“La Goupile de Serene”.The Fox of Serene, Hermeline De SardetSnippets from the life of De Sardet, before, during and after Teer Fradee.
Relationships: Constantin d'Orsay & De Sardet, Kurt & De Sardet (GreedFall)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	1. The Cousins and the Tree

**Author's Note:**

> Hi. Welcome to whatever the fuck this is.  
> Greedfall seemed like a pretty dang amazing game. I watched a lot of let’s play on it. My knowledge may be limited but I wanted to give it a shot. 
> 
> DISCLAIMER : this is a beta less work written by a French girl. If any mistakes you see along the road is probably due to that. Feel free to point out to me any mistake you may find, much appreciated!
> 
> Enjoy this read, safe travels and good day!

# Forword

The word in French for “fox” is “Renard”. 

However this is only the second name of the animal. When, around the 13th century, a man called Pierre de Saint-Cloud wrote and gathered a Compendium of poems and fables telling the stories of speaking animals, called “Le Roman de Renart”, “The Story of Renart”, his most popular character was a fox who went by the name of “Renart”. The popularity of the compendium changed the name of the animal, that was previously known as “ _goupil_ ”.

Incidentally, Renart has a wife who goes by the name of _Hermeline_.

## Chapter 1 : The Cousins and the Tree

There was a tree in the back courtyard of the De Sardet estate. 

Throughout all her life, the rare times she skipped her lessons, she took refuge in the thick branches of this tree. Her mother told her that back when the De Sardet founder chose to take a residence in Serene, he saw this tree beloved by the people, and built his home around it. 

“The tree,” her mother had said with solemnity and a voice that demanded and had all of her young attention, “represents our duty to the people. All of us in this household, as we look through the window and outside, we see this tree, and it reminds us of why we are here, why we do what we do and for whom. Never forget this, daughter.”

Her young mind had a hard time trying to understand how a tree and people had anything in common. She just loved the tree very much. When she climbed up in its branches, when her auburn hair would catch the wind breezing through its leaves and it would be the softest thing she heard, and it would lull her to sleep. She would dream of branches and roots that embraced and protected her, curled around her small body. 

It was from such a dream that she was awaken to meet with a very weird and blond boy. She had seen the man that accompanied him before, in her uncle’s palace. And she saw the boy before, also in the palace. 

She was young but she knew how to climb trees, and learnt very early on. One of the servants taught her. 

“Good day, my dear,” the man had called up to her with a soft voice, “I am Monsieur de Courcillion. Would you be Mademoiselle Hermeline De Sardet?”

“I am,” she answered, as if she was not perched a few meters above him. He seemed to be very amused by the situation. He smiled and bowed.

“It is nice to meet you, Dame Hermeline. I was appointed by your mother and your uncle to be your new tutor. I will be teaching you history, economics and diplomacy. Next to me is your cousin and son of Prince d’Orsay, Constantin d’Orsay. From now on I will be teaching you both.”

She looked down at him and seemed to acknowledge him with a nod, she swept her skirts on the side of the large branch she had settled on and started going down along the trunk carefully. She landed on the ground in front of him and dusted her skirts then pulled out a handkerchief to clean up her hands and curtsied at them both.

“Pleased to meet you, Monsieur. Your Highness.”

The boy simply huffed and hid slightly behind the man, peeking at her behind his coat. Monsieur De Courcillon chuckled at her.

“What a well-mannered young lady. Although I doubt that your mother would very much approve of your hiding place.”

“It’s okay, she knows. She says, as long as I am presentable when I go down, it’s fine.”

“Very well then. Then please come with us, so we may start our first lesson.”

As the man guided them to the office, Constantin grumbled something that sounded like:

“I hate history...”

She had giggled at that. Because she did too. When he looked up, she stuck her tongue to him. He looked so shocked she laughed and ran passed De Courcillon as she heard Constantin rant and rave.

This was how the two cousins of Serene first met.

Many years later, when spring arrived upon Serene, the tree did not grow new leaves. 

It stood there, silently, black bark spreading on it one week after the other. When the months passed and the tree remained nearly dead, Hermeline saw her mother frown. Within the next hours, the gardener of the Prince’s palace arrived at the back court yard of the De Sardet estate. The Princess De Sardet had stood by his side during the explanation by the tree, arms crossed, while listening to what the man was saying intently.

“It is sick,” he confirmed. Hermeline was passing by in the corridor along the court yard and heard those words. She stopped dead on her tracks. She stared for a long time at the large silhouette looming over them, the one she was so familiar with.

“Mother, what’s going on?”

Elvire turned to her and ushered her closer.

“This man works in your uncle’s place as a herbalist and gardener. No one in these parts know plants better than him.”

Hermeline bowed her head slightly to him in greeting. 

“The tree is sick?” she repeated to him.

“I fear it’s even worse than that, my lady. Come see here.”

As they approached, the man gave a few scratched on the bark at the base of the trunk. After only a few, he gave a slight pull and the bark started to peal off with a dreadful cracking sound. A good portion was left in his hands.

“When a plant is sick, it starts to show with the leaves and the branches at the very edge of it. This here, shows that the trunk is now sick too. And when it’s in such a state, well...”

Elvire De Sardet sighed.

“It’s dying, Hermeline. I’m afraid we have to cut it down.”

“What?! No! I’m sure we just need to wait a bit longer! It will have leaves again!” 

Elvire sighed again.

“Very well then. Do you realize that if the tree falls on someone passing by, it will be your fault for allowing this to happen?”

“But... you said it was the people...”

Elvire looked up to the black branch of the tree, her eyes were slightly melancholic. 

“I know what I said. But if someone gets hurt because of it, I need to cut it down. I will not risk someone’s safety because I didn’t act accordingly.”

She paused before turning to her daughter.

“And this is also true for the people. You will learn this in time.” She turned to the gardener. “Call your best woodcutters, please,” she said. “It was an old tree. We will need all the help we can get.”

Constantin arrived at the estate to see Hermeline sitting on what was left of the trunk of the tree. It had been neatly cut thanks to alchemical seesaws. The Princess de Sardet decided to keep the rest of it. The wood was white and the bark still black and dry. Hermeline could feel that if she wasn’t careful, a simple caress on the flat surface could hurt a finger. Never had this tree been harmful to her before.

“I liked that tree.” Constantin, Hermeline realized, were good at voicing her own thoughts. She never managed to say if it was because his thought process was just really similar to hers or if he just knew her that well. “It felt like being in another world when you were close to it, didn’t it?”

“Yes. It did...”

Hermeline was quiet and Constantin seemed a bit confused as to what he should do and just sat next to her, his hand patting the trunk affectionately. He didn’t seem to care that his hand would end up hurt. Constantin was never careful when he needed to be. But he was always the most generous when it was needed. 

Hermeline tried to dream of the roots, that night. They had seemed to be hugging her form, as if to say farewell. And then she never dreamed of them again.

In hindsight, years later, Hermeline concluded that it was at this moment she felt her childhood come to an end.


	2. The boy with a heart of gold

## Chapter 2 : The Boy With a Heart of Gold

One night, when they were still quite young, Constantin had slept at the De Sardet estate. He had his own room and guards watching his door. But as the moon was shining brightly high in the sky, Hermeline was woken up by a shy knock. 

“Who’s this?”

“Hermy, it’s Constantin...”

She frowned and climbed down from her large bed, her feet patting softly against the cold wooden floor. She opened the door to find her blond cousin, hugging a pillow against him, a guard behind him who looked a bit embarrassed. Constantin was in his night shirt and he looked shy and very sleepy. 

“What’s going on...?” Hermeline asked, scrubbing her eyes that were squinting because of the torch light in the hall. 

“I... I can’t sleep...”

“Huh? Why?”

“I had... a nightmare...”

“Oh... Do you want to come in?”

Constantin nodded and hid his embarrassed face in his pillow. 

“Okay then.” She looked up at the guard. “Can you tell my mother that Constantin is with me? So she doesn’t get worried if he is not in his room...”

The guard nodded with a smile. He made a gesture to his companion who was waiting at the end of the hall to guard the door.

“Good night, little lords!” The guard whispers cheerfully. He sounded like an accomplice. It made the children giggle a bit.

“Good night.” They said in unison and Hermeline closed the door.

When they were both sitting in bed under the covers, she asked him:

“Why can’t you sleep?”

“I have a lot of nightmares these days...”

“What kind of nightmares?”

Constantin stared at the ceiling for a moment, then he turned to her.

“Can I tell you a secret?”

“Obviously.”

“So... there was a man that came in my room a few nights ago... He was found and punished and all... Everyone kept telling me that it was a burglar who came to steal stuff in my room... but why go and steal from the most guarded place in the city, right?”

“Right. It’s stupid.”

“Exactly! Well I was very scared when I saw him so I didn’t realize right away. But I remembered later... He... he had a dagger.”

“A dagger?!”

“Yes. I think...” she heard him inhale and exhale. “I think he wasn’t here to steal anything. He came to kill me.”

There was a silence. And she heard soft sobs. Constantin was crying. It was different from the usual whining he did. This time he was scared, and Hermeline had no idea how to deal with it.

“Every night, I see him, and the dagger and... I haven’t told this to anyone. Not even my father.” 

Hermeline hugged him awkwardly. Then there was a quick knock and Elvire de Sardet, Hermeline’s mother, came in the room, candle in hand and a frown on her face.

“Children, this is not how the lords of this city should behave. Your Highness, please return to...” 

She interrupted herself when she saw the distress of her daughter hugging her crying cousin.

“Oh dear...” she sighed. “Can you bring me this chair to the bed and close the door behind you, please?” she asked the guard. 

When the door closed, Elvire put her candle down on the night table.

“Now. What is going on?” she asked softly. She waited patiently for the sobbing to gradually end, while Hermeline kept on patting awkwardly his head. As he still seemed to be unable to talk, Hermeline answered her mother.

“Constantin was attacked in his room a few days ago, and since then he keeps having nightmares and can’t sleep. So he came to my room so he could sleep with me...”

“I see... You have nothing to worry about, Your Highness. The guards will protect you. And our house will protect you...”

“I want to sleep with my cousin.” Constantin shook his head, trying to add authority to his tone, but failing miserably. But when he looked to see the no-nonsense face of Elvire, he begged: “Please. Just for tonight.”

Elvire stared down at him, as he was still being hugged by her daughter. 

“Would you mind that very much, Hermeline?”

She shook her head. She wanted her friend to be better. She didn’t like his crying at all. 

“Very well, then.”

The two children looked at her in relief.

“Thank you, my Aunt.”

“Do not speak a word of it to your father, however, my prince,” she added sharply. 

“No, Madam. I promise.” 

Elvire nodded. She was about to get up while the children hid under the covers, when Hermeline called out:

“Mama.”

“Yes, dear?”

“Can you sing us the song of the boy with the heart of gold? It helps me go to sleep, maybe it can help Constantin too!”

Elvire thought about it, turned to see the pleading eyes of her daughter. She sighed again. She could not resist those eyes.

“Oh, very well. Now. Covers up to your chins, the night is cold.”

Elvire leaned down above their small figures, start rubbing energetically the sides and top of their forms, provoking giggles. 

“Now that we are all warm, listen well to this song...”

Elvire cleared her throat and sat on the edge of the bed instead of the chair prepared for her. She started humming softly a melancholic and soft, very soft tune. Her body was rocking slowly in rhythm of her humming as she was focusing on remembering the lyrics. Then her voice hoarse started to sing, and the more she sang, the more her voice was steady and lulling. 

_Hear the legend of the child  
From the land of Armor old  
Born a day of storms and winds high,  
With a dear heart full of gold  
The older and bigger he grew  
The larger his dear heart grew  
The more his treasure grew heavy  
The more he ached of love, and weary_

_My little one, have you ever heard the song  
From the pretty old time  
That mothers sang to their own little ones  
To cradle them at night._

_The parents who raised up the boy,  
Were poor and lived in misery,  
He wished to bring them all his joy,  
With the gold from his heart heavy,  
Helped by a sharp and gleaming knife,  
Opened his shining heart of gold,  
He pulled of it and put each night,  
A golden coin on their threshold,_

_My little one, have you ever heard the song  
From the pretty old time  
That mothers sang to their own little ones  
To cradle them at night._

_He gave it all and so much more,  
That one day Death had closed his eyes  
Then an angel came from above  
And took his heart to the skies  
From this day on when night would fall,  
Seen in the land of Armor old,  
High in the sky above us all,  
A bright and shiny star of gold,_

_How innocent and sweet was this song  
From the pretty old time  
That mothers sang to their own little ones  
To cradle them at night._

By the time Elvire finished the song, Hermeline was already sleeping, turned on the side towards Constantin. The boy looked at her, his eyes were tired, but he was still awake. And he stopped crying. 

“This song was so sad,” he said, his voice cracking after the tears.

“It is,” Elvire agreed. “But in the end, the boy still was rewarded for his generosity. Now the star shines upon the world and everyone needs only to look up and see that the boy guides us still. That doesn’t mean you have to take out the gold out of your heart with a knife,” she added while caressing the golden hair of her nephew. “But when you can, when you feel it is right... be kind. And don’t forget that the star of gold still shines...”

Constantin had his eyes full of quiet wonder. She could guess his mind was already full of generosity and of little boys who went up to the stars when they died. It was not a gaze full of awe a child could have at the end of the story told by the side of their bed. It was a thoughtful gaze. Constantin always had been more clever than the other children his age. Which was why he got along so well with his cousin. Elvire realized now that, should he become the heir to the throne, he would make a good king. 

“Now,” Elvire said quietly, “shush, dear nephew. You must sleep.”

The boy nodded. Elvire went on petting his hair while she kept on humming the song. The two children were huddled against the other, looking for comfort in the other... Finally Constantin was sleeping, nuzzling against his cousin. Elvire sighed with endearment, then slowly got up with her candle and opened quietly the door to their room. She gave them a last look behind her shoulders. It was at this moment she knew it would be hard to keep these two apart.

“Good night, darlings,” she whispered more in a prayer than to them. “May your dreams be safe from the horrors of this world this time, and all the others.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song is a French song called “la légende de l’enfant au cœur d’or”, that I learned in pub scout girl days. It’s an old song and I somehow managed to translate it in English, hopefully in a good poetic way lol. You can find a version of it by Les troubadours on YouTube to have an idea of the melody. It’s a very beautiful song, I hope you will enjoy it


	3. The Children and the Tusk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the gardens of the Palace of Serene, children play, and Hermeline hides.

## Chapter 3 : The Children and the Tusk

If there was one thing Hermeline hated the most, it was going at her uncle’s, the Prince d’Orsay’s court and having to hang out with other noble children. They were the worst. 

Before properly meeting Constantin, or rather, before Constantin was officially introduced to court and could be allowed to play with other kids, Hermeline had to bear the burden of playing with them while their respective parents did business. 

Their playtime usually happened in the royal gardens, which varied from beautiful greenhouses to neatly cut mazes, to mysterious and old thickets. The thickets were Hermeline’s favorite. More places to hide from them.

The children mocked her mark. Some scraped against her jaw to test the texture on their fingers, like cats when they were sharpening their claws against an intriguing matter.

Elvire was a busy woman and worked a lot with her brother the Prince d’Orsay, so she never quite noticed Hermeline’s unease when she took her to the Palace and left her with the mutts. And Hermeline would rather die than tell her. 

Everyday, Elvire would give her a sweet smile and say “Don’t cause trouble. Make me proud.” Hermeline didn’t know what “make me proud” meant exactly, but it certainly wasn’t coming crying to her when other children made fun of her, of that she was sure. So she just pretended to have fun with them when her mother was looking. As soon as she left and the moment those little runts were distracted, she would take some snacks with her and hide in a tree and sticking her tongue from above to those who managed to find her. 

There was a guard that did try to force her to come down from her perch once, but she had begged him to let her be, telling him of how the children would bully her. The man sympathized to her plight and passed on to the others to let the little De Sardet lady hide when she wanted to. She was allowed this respite but the only condition was to make herself known immediately when the guards were looking for her.

However when Constantin was finally recognized at court, he was allowed to play with the other kids, and things started to change. 

Before this day, and after meeting with Constantin at the De Sardet estate, and during Monsieur de Courcillion’s classes, they could never see each other at the Prince’s palace in public. When she wasn’t hiding from the kids, she would find a spot under his room’s balcony and throw pebbles at the glass and when he noticed her, they would start a strange game of playing catch, of passing things to each other with a basket attached to a rope, Hermeline and him would exchange varying objects, him would give her trinkets from his room, she would fetch flowers and other natural things from the gardens. Most of the time, they would share food like this, him eating while looking down and grinning at her from his window, her hidden in the bushes below, mouth full and grinning back at him.

But now that Constantin was allowed to play outside, those days of silly games were over, and Hermeline felt she wouldn’t be having as much fun as before. Because now they were forced to play with the other children. The ones she hated and avoided like the plague. She was now forced to stay on the low ground, and thus to bear the attention of those runts who kept wanting to scratch her mark. She was so annoyed at this she didn’t even avoid them like she used to and straight up slapped their hands away from her. 

Constantin seemed to be having fun with the kids, she was so unhappy about that she stayed quiet the whole time, walking behind the group when they would run around in the gardens. He never saw her like this, preyed upon by other children who weren’t even as tall as she was. And she didn’t want him to see her like this. She preferred when it was just the two of them rather than with those other idiots. 

“What are you doing?” Constantin asked to those touching her face.

It was the loud, red-headed girl with freckles and the dark skinned boy with a ridiculously short pony-tail. She wanted to pull on it really hard before Constantin spoke up, looking away from his chat with the two others.

“Constantin, did you see her stain? It’s just so weird right? Here, touch it...” the red headed girl called out.

Hermeline was suddenly horrified. What if the runts could contaminate Constantin with their stupid? What if he would start scratching her mark too? Her best friend also mocking her...? Oh why couldn’t she have a normal skin like all of them? Why couldn’t they just leave her be?!

The girl tried to bring Constantin’s hand next to her jaw, and Hermeline was so shocked at this she barely moved. It was over... he wouldn’t be her friend anymore... She was on the verge of tears.

But Constantin pulled his hand away from the girl’s grip.

“Why would I do that? No one wants to touch someone’s face like that...”

“You’ll see it’s totally worth it, I never saw someone like her before, it has to be the weirdest thing you saw,” supplied the ponytail boy behind her. He sounded smug. Like he wanted to be punched in the face.

“Meh, I’ve seen much weirder things,” Constantin huffed, unimpressed. The other kids looked surprised. “Some mark on a kid’s face is nothing. You’re stupid if you think that is weird!”

“We aren’t stupid, you’re stupid!” the girl with black curly hair he was talking to before scoffed proudly, crossing her arms. 

“You can’t have seen something as weird as this,” her neighbor, the oldest boy of their group, who looked like the brother of the black haired girl, provoked while pointing at Hermeline’s mark. 

Constantin sniffed with arrogance, making herself look taller.

“Oh yeah? Well, my father received a gift from Teer Fradee last week, it was amazing!”

“Huh?! Teer Fradee?! You mean the new island?” the ponytail boy cried out.

“What else do you know that’s called Teer Fradee!” the oldest snarked.

“Is that true?! What is it?” The black-haired girl pleaded.

Hermeline had to admit, she was also curious. Constantin grinned, and looked at her before walking back towards the palace and leaving the maze they were hidden in.

“Come, I’ll show you! This way.”

Constantin led the band of children to a gallery. All the way, their hurried steps had resounded on the squeaky cleaned floor of halls. 

“Are we even allowed to be here?” the red headed girl asked, suddenly a lot less louder. 

“Well he’s the Prince’s son so now we can go wherever we want,” the oldest grinned at them. 

Hermeline scoffed under her hair and Constantin said nothing to that. He was forbidden to enter probably more places than a servant. He just had a harder time admitting it than she did.

There were two guards guarding the entrance of the gallery and when Constantin asked if they could come in, they refused. 

“Huh? Why is that! I’m the Prince, I can go anywhere here!”

“There are many fragile objects in this hall, Your Highness. Children are not allowed in.” 

Even with Constantin insisting, and even threatening them, they didn’t budge. Constantin then turned to Hermeline with pleading eyes. She sighed. Stepped forward, folding neatly her hands together in front of her skirts, and took her smartest and most polite tone:

“We merely wish to see what was brought from Teer Fradee. We promise not to run, not to shout and not to touch anything. We will be walking in a line to make sure not to cluster the alleys, and we will be as quiet as a mouse.”

The children and the guards were surprised at her mature tone, when she barely reached an adult’s hip. Still the guards looked at each other and hesitated. Hermeline looked sideways and thought for a second before looking up at them with a smile:

“To make sure we don’t do any of this, one of you could accompany us! This way we will be kept in check.”

They seem to think before one of them, the oldest one, let her eyes and her charming smile, and sighed.

“Oh alright. But only for a few minutes and DON’T. TOUCH. ANYTHING.”

“Of course,” Hermeline nodded with poise and did a small curtsy. “We will all do what you say, right?”

She turned to the others and they nodded to the guards enthusiastically. While the guards opened the gallery, the children looked impressed at Hermeline and she couldn’t remember the last time they looked at her this way. Without looking mean. 

“How did she do that? The guards at my house never listen to me...,” one of the boy whispered to Constantin.

“Hermy is really good at talking with adults,” Constantin said proudly. “She likes to speak like them and they like that a lot and are always impressed with her.”

Hermeline looked down at her feet to hide her blush of pride. Somehow she was really glad she was able to shine in front of those idiots. 

They walked in line, the guard behind them, keeping a close look. They couldn’t help whispering between each other. Sometimes they would stop in front of a massive painting, to look at all the armored and spectacular characters move on them. Constantin, always having an excellent memory, told them about the story he knew about them. Sometimes he would make something up and Hermeline would frown at him. He merely shrugged in answer. 

Next they stopped in front of a massive spherical and metallic contraption, hanging well above them, like a chandelier. None of them knew what it was and each had their own theory about what it could be. A cage to capture the sun. A musical instrument. Something to hang ham with... Turned out the one who supplied this suggestion was very hungry and they all snickered at him.

“I believe that’s a moon calendar.”

All the children turned to the guard behind them. He coughed in front of their surprised reactions. They oooooh’d for a second. Then moved on to the next aisle. 

“Behold!” Constantin announced finally, probably not knowing the actual meaning of the word. “The tusk of one of the monsters that lives in Teer Fradee.”

They all looked up and stared at a large wooden plaque and on it was a a long, curved, and almost jet black. It had indentation here and there and it had been neatly cut and oiled to keep the luster for as long as possible. The tusk itself was taller than any of them.

“How big do you think it was?”

“Meh. It just looks like a branch...”

“I’m telling you it’s a tusk.”

“But what kind of creature do you think it was to have something so big in its mouth?”

All shuddered at the thought and stared haggardly at the object. Constantin started to tell the story he remembered the envoy saying:

“Apparently the savages that live there have treasures kept in caves or temples. Some of them are guarded by monsters, and it’s the first one the Alliance managed to defeat...”

“So they’re like dragons in stories?”

“Dragons don’t exist...”

“How do you know?”

“Because it’s just stories!”

“Well this one isn’t... Apparently many soldiers died to kill the beast...”

Quietness gained the children as they stared at the tusk worriedly and the guard behind them looked at them and asked softly:

“Would you like to see something else?”

“Oh yes! I wanted to show them something else!! You know we have the sword of the First ever Prince of Serene! He was a knight and his sword is stuck in a big stone. One of our ancestors used to promise the hand of his daughter to anyone who would draw the sword out, but no one succeeded...”

“What’s this thing about ‘promising hands’ anyway?”

“Beats me...”

“I always hear my parents talking about that but I never ask...”

While they chattered and whispered between each other, Hermeline stared a while longer at the tusk.

“Are you okay, Young Mistress?” the guard asked.

“Yes... I was just wishing I’d seen this creature as a whole...”

The guard followed her stare and said with a wary tone:

“With all due respect, Young Mistress, if we ever were to see the size of this thing here, we would be in a mighty load of trouble...”

“I guess you’re right...”

They stared for a few seconds later when the clear voice of Constantin called to her:

“Hermy! What are you doing! Come see this!!” He quieted down when the guard gave him a dark look and just waved at her to come closer. The other children also looked at her expectantly. Waiting for her, with eagerness... As if there was no mockery left in them... 

It was unsettling. But she quite liked it better. She lifted her skirts and skittered away towards the group waiting for her.

She might yet make her mother proud after all...


End file.
